WELSH political parties have given “virtually no detail” on how they would afford their promises for significant improvements to schools and the NHS after the May elections, a think tank said today.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) called on Reform, Plaid Cymru and Welsh Labour to be more honest about the “cold, hard reality” facing the next government and prepare the public for “difficult choices.”

IFS’s head of devolved and local government finance David Phillips said that they “have one thing in common: a need to be more upfront about the fiscal challenges facing the next Welsh government.”

He warned the combined slowdown in increases in central government funding and growing demands and costs for health and social care “will mean a Welsh budget under significant pressure … [and] not preparing the public for difficult choices prior to an election can come back to bite you politically when the electoral dust has settled.”